Values set using the following keys are used to compose a cloud-init part which is sent to a Chef server:
Setting | Description | Required? | On resources |
Enable Chef | Whether or not to enable Chef. | Yes | All except BE/MBE |
Chef repository URL | URL of the Chef repository. | Yes | All |
Chef server URL | URL of the Chef server. | Yes | All |
Chef PGP key | Authentication for the Chef repository. | Yes | BE, MBE, Image, Customer |
Node name | Display name for the server in Chef. | No | Server only |
Environment | Nodes (resources) are grouped by environment in Chef. | Yes | All |
Validator name | The account name for your Chef account. | Yes | All except server |
Validator key | The password for your Chef account. | Yes | All except server |
Recipes | Recipes define portions of configuration passed to a server. | No | All |
Roles | Roles are used to set precedence for configurations. | No | All |
These keys overwrite each other according to a hierarchy, allowing defaults values for Chef settings determined by billing entities to be overridden by their customers and users. For how this hierarchy is structured, see the diagram below.
This means that if a billing entity sets Enable Chef to true, Chef is enabled for all customers, deployment instances, images, and servers within that billing entity. Conversely, if the billing entity sets a default value for the Chef Server URL, this value can be overridden by one set on a customer, deployment instance, image, or server within that billing entity.